Wednesday, January 2, 2013

What is a carnivore?

Eric Horning

What is a carnivore?

A
carnivore is a meat eater. In Latin it means to devour flesh. A carnivore is
any organism that gets its energy and nourishment from predation or scavenging
other animals. Omnivores also consume animals but they also eat plants. Human
and most bears are omnivores. Herbivores are animals that eat only plants.
Herbivores are the animals that carnivores normally prey upon.

The
largest carnivores on land are the Kodiak and polar bears. They can weigh more
than 1,500 pounds. But Polar Bears are the most carnivorous of all the bears.
The fastest land animal is the cheetah. This carnivore able to sprint to speeds
faster than 60 miles per hour in just a few seconds as it chases down its prey.

Carnivores
use keen senses of vision, hearing, and smell that allow them to find their
prey. Then capture the prey using speed, agility, claws, specialized teeth or
beak. They use camouflage or cover to stalk and ambush their prey. Most are
extremely skillful predators and hunt alone. But a few such as lions, killer
whales, and wolves form social groups with a dominant male or female that work
together to hunt and raise their young. Plants that capture and digest insects
like the Venus flytrap are carnivorous plants.

What is an apex
predator?

Apex
predators are any carnivores that as an adult are at the top of the food chain
and do not have any natural enemies. Killer whales and tigers are examples of
apex predators. They play an important role in nature. The apex predators keep
the larger numbers of smaller predators in check and reduce the numbers of
unhealthy animals in their environments. This keeps their prey animals abundant
and their environments healthy. Some of the animals in this book are apex
predators. Most are not. Many Apex predators are man eaters.